Tapas for April 2018

It was Tapas Time again this past weekend.  I'd just gotten back from a long road trip and was in no mood or shape to host it, but luckily for me, a friend had offered to host it this month.
I like having friends, especially ones who step up and host Tapas when I'm not able to. 
I actually only made one item, and luckily for me I had all the ingredients in-house to do so.  Cause the only grocery shopping I've done since returning has been picking up eggs, bread and milk, tomatoes and lettuce. 
I need to go and do a proper shopping this week. 
However, you're not interested in that I'm sure.  You want to see what everyone brought and shared at Tapas.
There were crackers and a charcuterie plate with cheese and grapes, I could have made a meal out of this alone.

 A lovely salmon spread,

 which went delightfully with some rice crackers.  I've been known to buy rice crackers, just because...

 Hummus spread on baguette slices, and look how pretty.  They tasted great as well.

 Santa brought pineapple as usual.

 There was rice with went with

a lovely gumbo

 I brought some Chile Verde

 There were some sausage rolls, and I could have gone for seconds, but they were gone.

 Little sausages in sauce

 Pasta Salad, which was very tasty.

 Little cheddar biscuits, again, they were yummy

 Chicken Salad, decorated beautifully, and it tasted great as well. 

 A Ramen Salad,  I love ramen salad and this was good.

 Dips and chips and another cheese plate.  I need a cheese slicer like this. 

and then there were the desserts...
Lemon Souffle Cheesecake with blueberry topping.  It was so good.

 There were also cupcakes

 Some cookies

 a coffee cake

 and a torte.

I have to say, if you go home hungry, you're just too picky.  There's always a lot of great food, and the conversations are always good as well. 
I was very grateful to have Jill host it this time, otherwise we would have missed a month.

I'll be hosting it next month, and I've already got some ideas...

Crazy Squared Deviled Eggs

I love making and eating Deviled Eggs.   Well, not so much the making of them, cause peeling hard cooked eggs can get downright aggravating.  I mean really, FRUSTRATING!!, yes, I did mean to yell.
My local store has some of the freshest eggs around, and as you may know, peeling fresh hard cooked eggs is next to impossible.
I know whereof I speak, cause I've been known to make egg salad sometimes when I really wanted to make deviled eggs, just cause those eggs did not peel nicely. sigh
So when I saw this on Facebook and followed the link back to Food Network,  I had to try it.

I did change it up a little, I only had 9 eggs, and wanted to use them up before we went on a road trip.   And I seasoned them, my way.
And those 9 eggs made over 20 little bites of deliciousness.

Full recipe follows, but for now...
Whisk the egg whites together, pour them into the prepared pan and bake.

Then in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, add salt and pepper if desired and scramble, lightly.

Pay attention to the time, cause if you let the egg whites cook too long, you have to cut off the browned bits, before you can cut them into squares.

Process the egg yolks in a food processor, with the mayonnaise and mustard. 

Then have fun.
Cut the cooked egg whites into little squares,

And pipe the egg yolks onto each square

then decorate them.

Yield: 20+ bitesAuthor: Adapted from Food Network

Crazy Squared Deviled Eggs

prep time: 10 MINScook time: 20 MINStotal time: 30 mins

A really fun and easy way to make Deviled Eggs

ingredients:

9 eggs, separated

1/4-1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons Dijon or coarse ground mustard

salt and pepper to taste

paprika

carrot or red pepper strips to decorate

Shredded lettuce

instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 deg.  Grease an 8x8 inch square pan. 

Separate eggs and place in separate bowls.  Whisk the eggs white together and pour into the greased pan, place in oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the whites are set and cooked.  Take out of oven and allow to cool in pan. 

While the whites are cooking, whisk the yolks together.  Scramble them lightly in a pan, just until cooked.   Let them cool, and when cool, place in a food processor and add the mayonnaise and mustard and process. 

Take the cooled whites out of the pan, and cut into 1 inch or so squares. 

Put the egg yolk mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star or round tip.  Pipe equal amounts of the egg yolk filling onto each egg white square.  Sprinkle with a little paprika. 
Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce and decorate with some carrot or red pepper strips if desired.  
All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2021, with all rights reserved thereof.  

Created using The Recipes Generator

SRC- Crab Rangoon Dip

I got so excited when Sarah said she was going to have an SRC reunion, and that we were going to be assigned a blog to stalk, find a recipe and then make and blog about it.
And we were all going to post the same day, a Monday.  Which is today, and here's my recipe find.
Check out some of our past posts here at SRC
Boy what a find, I had so much fun going through Kathy's blog, and looking at the recipes.
Check out her other great recipes at A Spoonful of Thyme
Although, I stopped looking when I found this recipe. 

Open Face King Crab Rangoon
I mean Crab Rangoon? Really, who doesn't love this stuff.  When I find it on the menu at Chinese restaurants I order it. I've even made it a couple of times.  But Kathy's recipe was for Open Face King Crab Rangoon.
As much as I love King Crab, it's not in my budget, but I do buy snow crab and crab in little pouches and play with that.  I'm kinda well known for my crab cakes in these parts, having won the Peoples Choice the past two years in a contest in my part of the world.
I got so excited and picked up the ingredients, well, the affordable to my pocketbook ingredients, and proceeded.
Our local store didn't have any wonton wrappers, but they did have eggroll wrappers so I cut some of them down to size,  and then fried them up nice and crisp.

Set them aside and then proceeded to the topping.
And here is where I made an oops.  I relied on my memory, sigh and it played tricks on me.  I'd written down the ingredients list, got them all together, but ummm, mixed in the crab too soon. sigh.

I served this at our usual monthly Tapas Night and it was well received.   And just because it's me, I did change it up a little.
Here's my take on this great dish.

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 small garlic clove, grated on a microplane
1/2 tsp. Lime Juice
1 tsp. Sweet Soy Sauce
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 small bunch green onions, chopped
6 oz. package crab meat (fresh pack)
1/2 package egg roll wrappers cut into quarters
oil for frying

Cut the egg roll wrappers into quarters, and fry them until nice and crisp and golden.  Set aside.
Combine the cream cheese, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce.  Heat through and add the heavy cream, then add the crab and warm through.  Add the chopped green onions at the end, and stir in.  Reserve a few pieces for decoration if desired.
This was actually quite dip like so I choose to serve it as a dip, and added a bowl of sweet and sour sauce at the side for the non seafood eating guests.  They dipped the wonton crackers I'd made and I was told this was so good.  My guests  left me a scant 1/4 cup so I knew it was good.
All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2018, with all rights reserved thereof.  
Check out the rest of the great recipes from what I hope is but the first of many SRC reunions. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tiramasu Cupcakes for #BakingBloggers

I joined a group called Baking Bloggers a couple of months ago and the theme for this month is Cupcakes.
It took me almost 3 1/2 seconds to decide on what I was making for this event.
Tiramisu Cupcakes.

I bake a cake or cupcakes every other week and donate them to our local Legion for a cake raffle.  It's been awhile since I'd made cupcakes.  I've also been wanting to make some Tiramisu again,and since I happened to pick up some Mascarpone in the 'big city' a few weeks ago, for that, decided that maybe Tiramisu Cupcakes might be in order.
They turned out awesome.
I did taste test a couple before bringing them to be raffled off.  

I believe in making sure that what I make is edible.
I used my Mary Berry Recipe for the cupcakes and just increased the amounts to get 24 cupcakes.  

Yield: 24 cupcakesAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking adapted from Mary Berry's recipe

Tiramasu Cupcakes

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 15 MINStotal time: 30 mins

These light as air cupcakes are a delightful twist on the traditional Tiramasu cake

ingredients:

6 eggs

150 grams self rising flour

150 grams sugar

Topping

500 gram Mascarpone Cheese

8 oz. Full fat Cream Cheese

5 tablespoons  confectioners sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

Ganache

6 oz.  Dark Bittersweet or Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

2 tablespoons Heavy cream

1- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Wash

1/2 cup fresh coffee

1 teaspoon coffee extract

1/4 cup brandy

instructions:

Sponge

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees ( or 160C convection).

Prepare the cupcake tin (I have a 24 cupcake tin) by placing a cupcake liner in and spraying it with a non stick spray.  For these I used a decorated aluminum cupcake liner and sprayed them very lightly with Baker's Joy non stick baking spray.

Whisk the 6 eggs and sugar together for about 5 minutes, until foamy, light colored  and almost doubled in size. It should leave a trail on top when the whisk is lifted.   Sift the self rising flour over it and cut in lightly, using a spatula or large spoon.  Pour into greased cupcake liners, and bake for about 15 minutes or a little less until cupcakes have risen and browned lightly, and spring back to the touch.

Wash

1. For the wash, mix the water, coffee extract and brandy together, set aside.   

Filling

1. Beat the Mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and cream together until smooth.   You will get a creamy spreadable frosting.   Spoon it into  a frosting bag with a star tip for the next step. 
   Assembly
   Sprinkle one quarter of the coffee/brandy wash over  the cupcakes or use a pastry brush to generously coat the cupcakes.   You might need to go over them several times so that the wash can soak in a little into the cupcakes.  I 'painted' the tops 6 times to get the right amount of wash on top.  You can also dribble a teaspoon on top of each cupcake if you wish.  When finished with the wash, sprinkle it with some of the grated ganache.  Then top with the mascarpone frosting piped on in a pleasing fashion with a star tip.  Finish off with some more of the grated ganache and a light sprinkle of cocoa powder. 

Ganache
Heat the cream and pour over the chocolate chips, whisk together or stir to combine.
Let the ganache cool a little and then spread half of it out thinly on a piece of plastic wrap and put the other half in a small square container covered in plastic wrap to make a little 'cake'.  Place in the freezer or fridge to harden.  When ready to finish off the cupcakes, take out of the fridge and grate the chocolate cake. Use that grated chocolate on top of the cupcake, underneath the Mascarpone frosting.  Then use a paring knife to cut up the rest of the chocolate into little slivers and use them to decorate the tops.  
All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2018, with all rights reserved thereof.  

Created using The Recipes Generator

Baking Bloggers April 2018: Cupcakes (Preview HTML)

Baking Bloggers

Cupcakes

• Boston Cream Cupcakes by The Redhead Baker
• Breakfast Cupcakes by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes by Trampling Rose
• Dream Delight Cupcakes by Sneha's Recipe
• Red Wine Dark Chocolate Cupcakes by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tiramisu Cupcakes by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

First Monday Favorites - April 2018 - 16

It's time for First Monday Favorites.  This is the day you can link up your favorite recipe from last month, not the one with the most views, but your own personal favorite, the one recipe you made that amazed, delighted and blew you away.  You know the one you will be making again and again.  And again.

I started First Monday Favorites because I missed the Secret Recipe Club I'd been a member of for several years. It was a large group, and we were divided into smaller groups.  Every month we were assigned a blog from our group to make and post a recipe from. Each group got one Monday a month.  I was in two different groups, at different times, so I got to know a few blogs. I got so many great recipes from this, and looked forward to each Monday to see what great recipes other's had made and posted.
And I'm doing this one Monday a month, the first Monday of the month.

And this month...  I had to feature my Coconut Chiffon Cake with Princess Frosting.   I actually made two and the second one has been residing in my freezer, but is now decorated and waiting in a friend's fridge for her.  I hope she likes it.

 

An InLinkz Link-up